“We may not have any more polar bears in the future. So I wouldn’t mind seeing her again as a specimen.”

WRS had said five years ago that there were no plans to import polar bears after animal rights group Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres) had raised concerns over living conditions here.

Yesterday, Acres founder and chief executive Louis Ng said there are no animal-welfare issues in preserving animals, as long as they are not killed specifically to be preserved.

He added: “We do see some educational value in having these specimens, and they can be an alternative to having live animals on display.”